Newbie In The Caves
by BellaHope'sTheName
Summary: When a fifteen year old girl drops from the sky-literally- right into Jamie's life, how will the two get along? How will Wanda and Mel feel when they see their baby brother finally growing into a man? Will they resent the newbie for it?
1. Dropped From The Sky

**Yay my first story! Wooooottt. **

**I've read a lot, so I get how all of this fanfiction kurfuffle works…**

**SO I WANT REVIEWS PEOPLEE. **

**Pwease? Just a few? Maybe? GrEaT!**

**PS- all of the characters besides Hayley and any random newbies I decide to add in are STEPHENIE MEYERS, not mine. Get it right, get it tight people.**

**HPOV**

The plane had crashed in the middle of a hot, dry dessert. I could barely see past the bright light of the sun, and the heat dragged on me so that even walking out of the shelter of the wreckage made me want to lie down and give in to death.

At age fifteen, I was a sight to see. My hair - a deep, burning red that my mother used to say looked like an ember burning after a fire had already gone out - was a mess in tangles and dirt and matted to my neck and forehead. My green eyes were dull and tired, with harsh black circles I could feel surrounding them. A severely broken rib on my left side left my half of my chest looking like a painting by Picasso, with a deep, formidable cut running from the end of my hip to nearly the top of my bra. It had happened when the plane went down, after the …

My mind went completely blank. I looked up, looked around at the wreck. I was sitting in what used to be the pilot's room thing, the cocks pit I think, with all the controls. Some lights were still blinking, faintly. The bodies of the other passengers were all dead, I had only survived because I was literally on the bottom of the plane, in the storage compartment, and the plane had flipped upside down unexpectedly. Or maybe not.

The plane had been filled with bodies, just bodies. Bodies with things inside of them. Silver things. I don't even know what they are, I just know. I had hidden, in a suitcase, and prayed that they didn't believe in security. They hadn't. I didn't get caught and the unexpected fake family of three would have been missing an entire suitcase full of clothes, had they landed safely in Hollywood. Too bad for them, they would never know that a third of their clothes had been left in Arlington Internation Airport back in London.

I looked out into the wasteland of Arizona's hottest hell, wondering what I was going to do. There were plenty of drinks and snacks on the plane, but nothing sustainable and nothing that wouldn't go bad in a few hours without electricity.

As I was taking another swing of Pepsi, a flash in the desert caught my eye. Was that movement? I tried to look harder, but outside was so bright, and I had such a rager headache already.

There! Definitely movement. Someone (or something, I reminded myself,) was out there. Trying to be sneaky, probably. Maybe a seeker. I shuddered.

Where could I go? There was no where to hide, unless I wanted to climb over death, and that really didn't sound appealing. No, better to just wait for them here. I was as good as dead anyway.

I finished off the Pepsi. Might as well have as much good stuff as I could before I was taken and filled with a Creep, anyway. Ruin this body for a…a… bug.

I could see the man now. Definitely human shaped. He was tall, with tan skin and dark hair and …and blue eyes. He was close now. I could see that. I closed my eyes, willing myself to look dead. It couldn't be that hard.

BOOM! He had succeeded in getting on the plane, somehow. It was still upside down, and it had taken me an entire hour to figure out how to get out when the drop from the door to the ground was close to six feet. It had taken me two hours to get back in.

I could hear him ruffling through the bodies, looking for survivors. Or maybe just cataloging. Do they do that still, the bugs?

I heard him coming closer. NO! I mind shouted at him. LEAVE ME ALONE!

He was in the cocks' pit. He was leaning over me. His hand was at my throat, checking my pulse. As soon as his cool skin hit mine, I through off the play-dead idea. Not gonna work when he felt my pulse.

I threw myself back, away from him, into the window, and hit my left side against the control panel. Screaming and clutching my side, my mind was filled with fear. I had seen what these monsters did, seen as they had taken over my school, my friends, my parents.

"NO!" I screamed with all my might, cowering, kicking out at him. He looked like he had seen a ghost, but he got over it fast. He grabbed my legs, holding me down, _pinning me down_.

"GET OFF ME! GET OFF ME, CREEP!" I screamed, crazy, thrashing and crying and hyperventilating.

"Hey, hey calm down. Look, look I'm like you, I'm not them!" He held a light to his eyes, held it right up to those blues, and I nearly fainted from shock. Just blue. Just…

"My name is Ian. You are human, I am human. Please calm down, I can take you to safety. But we need to hurry," he let go of my legs. He stood up slowly, extending his hand out to me. I looked at it, not sure.

"I'm Ian, I'm human, I can take you to more of us. It's safe there," it was like a chant, a mantra, and he kept repeating it, slowly, as he crouched down to my level again, hand still raised. I took my right hand off of my side, meaning to reach out to him, only to look at it and find it covered in blood. I cringed.

"It's okay, I know you're hurt, we have a doctor and medicine, we can heal you. Please, come with me," he was pleading, his hand still outstretched. I took his hand, because he didn't seem to mind the blood, and he helped me up.

"What's your name?" He asked softly as he led me out of the cock pit, out of the wreck, helping me slowly down from the six foot drop to the ground.

"Uh.." I croaked. The yelling and the dryness of the air had left my throat caked with dust. He smiled, a nice smile I noted, and handed me a water bottle. I took a sip before starting again. "Hayley."

"It's wonderful to meet you, Hayley. What were you doing on a plane full of souls?" Ian asked. I shuddered. Souls. It sounded too kind for them.

"I was going to Hollywood," I stated. He actually smiled.

"Ahh, the dream of all teenage girls. Hollywood." I actually laughed.

**Yay! First Chapter… **

**What a rush.**

**Sort of. Not really. **

**REVIEW!**


	2. Entrance

**MMMM Second Chapter. So soonnn? Of course, gotta get people reading, right?**

**Yeah, obviouslyyy. **

**I can't wait until Hayley meets Jamie! What a cutee pairing. **

**Thanks for reading, and REVIEW! **

**PS- all of the characters besides Hayley and any random newbies I decide to add in are STEPHENIE MEYERS, not mine. Get it right, get it tight people.**

**HPOV**

About thirty minutes' walk later, we reached a mountain. He walked right up to the base of it, pushed aside a rock, and a tunnel appeared. He must have seen my eyes grow wide because he said "Yeah, it takes some getting used to."

"It's amazing," I breathed, and then marched right in. It was perfect, the perfect hiding spot from the creeps…souls. Hidden, in a not-so-extraordinary-looking mountain, was a whole patchwork of tunnels! And even more incredible, I could already hear the hum of life, of _human_ life!

"Well, this is home. Jeb's Caves." I had no idea who Jeb was, or even if he'd let me stay, but I wanted to hug him. I felt like dancing, I felt like singing, I felt…at home.

"How old are you, anyway?" Ian and I had talked on the walk back, he knew basically my whole life's story, except for the boring stuff, and I knew some of the stories behind the caves, but we had neglected to actually talk about ourselves.

"I'm fifteen. Sixteen this August," I said proudly.

"Hm, only a few months younger than Jamie," I didn't know who Jamie was, but I was barely paying attention. By then we had walked into a huge, well lit room, full of…humans! I could feel my jaw dropping, my mouth forming an "o," my hand coming up to cover it, but I did none of it. I was in shock.

"Hayley, this is…mostly everyone. There are around thirty of us here, but there are more coming everyday. Like you!" Ian said. I just stared. I knew I looked horrible, with my white tanktop completely bloodsoaked and ripped on the left side and my entire body covered in bruises and my hair a rats tail I didn't even want to think about..

"Ian, who is this poor child?" A woman walked up to me, obviously used to being in charge. She was tall, much taller than me, with short black hair and hazel eyes.

"Mel, this is Hayley. I found her at that plane wreck we heard this morning, I went to go check it out."

"That wasn't smart, Ian. The souls are going to have seekers covering that thing like ants on spilled food pretty soon, what if you had been caught?"

"I knew they wouldn't find it for a couple hours, it wasn't that big of a risk. And I didn't even know that souls could crash a plane, they are so careful about everything. I thought that it was obvious that there would have been human intervention on it."

"I can see what you were thinking, but you still should have told one of us where you were going. Wanda was worried sick!"

"Oh, shoot, I thought I'd be back sooner, I'm going to go find her as soon as I look after…" Remembering me, they turned in my direction just as I swayed, loosing balance. The girl rushed over to me, grabbing me under the right arm to steady me.

"She lost a lot of blood, come on let's get her to Doc…" Just as I closed my eyes, I felt my sense of gravity shift, and I stiffened before realizing Ian must have lifted me up, and then I drifted into a dreamless, fitful sleep.

xox

When I awoke, I was laying on a long, hard cot in a well lit room filled with tools and boxes and odd looking tanks. I sat up slowly, grabbing for my side, where I felt instead of my messed up flesh, a new bandage.

"You did a good job beating yourself up, honey. Don't rush getting up, you don't want to re-tear your side," a kind looking man was looking down on me from the next cot, standing to come over to me.

"I'm Doc, it's nice to meet you. Ian told me your name is Hayley?" I nodded, appreciating his warm smile and returning one.

"Hayley Marie. I'm fifteen," I added, before he could ask. He smiled at me again, nodding, and asked how I felt.

"Fine, surprisingly, since I did feel like I had gotten punched in the side by Edward Scissorhands." I said, and he laughed.

"I like you, your funny. And it looked like you did, too. What happened?"

"I was hiding in a suitcase, in the cargo compartment of the plane, and I got really uncomfortable, so I got out and was heading towards the stairs when the plane…jumped, in the air, almost. It flipped over, all the suitcases landed on me, and I ended up on top of something really sharp that was bruising the hell out of my side. When we hit the ground, the impact caused whatever I landed on to tear into me. I had to remove it, but it was too dark to see clearly what it was. I still don't know," I said sadly.

"Ouch," Doc agreed, shuddering slightly. "Well, whatever it was sure beat the crap out of your side. It was a pretty clean wound though, and the medicines we get from raids on the souls healed it up pretty dang well. The bandage isn't really necessary, you can take it off if you'd like, it really was just to keep you from freaking out when you woke up." I looked down at the bandage on my side, noticing for the first time that it was looser than it should have been. I took it off, feeling only a little bit stiff, and was amazed to see not even a scratch on my side where the ugly bruise and laceration had been.

"Yeah, the bandage was a good idea," I whispered, fingering my side slowly. Had I dreamed it all? No, the crash had been real enough, and where I was now looked like a cave.

"Where are my clothes?" I just noticed that I was wearing an oversized, light blue men's button down that was far too large for me, even with the sleeves rolled up and all the buttons done. My jeans, old and stretched out, were also gone, to be replaced by black shorts, short enough to be called cute in my books but also a bit large, but thankfully women's.

"We disposed of them. They were horrible ruined, especially that shirt. Those are my wife's shorts your wearing, she donated them to you last night. And my shirt, which I don't want back, so don't feel bad cuttin' it down to size for yourself," Doc replied.

"Oh, Doc, thank you, but don't you need this?" I asked.

"Nah, with Wanda raiding now, we have enough clothes to go around and more. Don't worry, once she has your size, she'll be buying for you, too."

"Who's Wanda?" I asked.

"I am," I looked over at the smallest, cutest, frailest women ever only to notice…_her eyes reflected silver._

**Uh-oh... How's Soul-Hater gonna react to Wanda?**

**It's pretty obvious right? I'm gonna try to make the wayyyy too predictable AHHH SOUL scene nice and short, so those of us who know exactly how it's gonna go can skip right over ittt. **

**Sound good?**

**I think soo. **

**REVIEW. **


	3. It Begins

**HEREEEEE WE GO!**

**Yay, chapter three. Not going to keep you waiting much longer, I know I haven't updated in a couple days, sorry, more on that later… enjoy!**

**PS- all of the characters besides Hayley and any random newbies I decide to add in are STEPHENIE MEYERS, not mine. Get it right, get it tight people.**

"HOLY SHIT!" I shouted, jumping off of the bed and landing in a crouch on the side farthest from the...thing.

"Honey, calm down-" The creep, Wanda, started, but I cut her off.

"SHUT UP!" I covered my ears, not wanting to hear her lies, was this all an elaborate trap?

"Hayley, Hayley, it's alright, Wanda is a friend. A good friend. She's…"

"I'm a native soul," she said, looking proud. She? It. The creep. Stole that poor woman same as the rest stole my life.

"Women, you dreamin'. You're less native than a husky swimming in the Nile." I said rudely from the safety of the other side of the bed. She actually laughed. She_ laughed_ at me. I reacted instantly, living with older brothers all my life. I reached onto the bed, grabbed the meager pillow, and threw it with all my might at the creep.

"Hey, hey, hey, calm yourself Hayley." Doc said quickly. The pillow wiped the smile off of her tiny little face, let me tell you. It had hit her head dead on, causing her to stumble back and nearly over balance.

"Not until it gets out of here," I stated, standing tall and crossing my arms.

"She belongs here, she's saved us more times than I can count, and you _will behave_." A new voice said from the entrance of the hospital room. A man, obviously older with grey hair and wrinkles, was leaning against the doorway with a stern expression.

"Hayley, this is Jeb. He's the one that made all of this possible, he found and made these caves and saved us all," Doc explained. I stared dumbfounded at Jeb. Wanda smiled a little at him and then turned back to me, smiling a little, too. I tried to smile, but I think it looked more like I was in pain.

"Sit down, kid. Do I have a story for you!"

xOx

After Jeb explained everything to me, I understood why Doc had been upset at me for throwing the pillow at Wanda. However strange this situation was, it was a good one, and Wanda was a good person ... soul. I could respect that and I would respect that.

After I understood and agreed, Wanda led me on a very fast-paced and bubbly tour of the wondrous caves and introduced me to many of the people who lived there, including Mel, who I had met but now had a new respect for, and Ian, Wanda's lover.

The tour's last pit stop ended at a room that Wanda called the 'school,' which had one wall entirely devoted to math equations written all over it in chalk and a bookcase which held about ten children's' books and a couple odd novels or dictionaries thrown in. In the middle of the room, a woman with bright red hair sat cross-legged on a rug in front of her three pupils, two little boys who I would later come to know as Isaiah and Freedom, and a third boy who looked to be the same age as me. Sharon was explaining something to them, making images with her hands, when we interrupted.

"Sharon, this is Hayley, she just arrived today. I was hoping I could steal Jamie for the evening so she would have someone her own age to talk to while we get her settled in," Wanda said politely, and a little shyly. Was she scared? Or uncomfortable interrupting the class? Because whether she wanted to or not, she disrupted it big time. The two little boys ran up and hugged her, the elder holding her hand while the younger, who looked around four or five, held up his hands so she could pick him up.

"Yup, Jamie go ahead," the red head said, but Jamie wasn't listening to her. When our eyes had met, he had jumped up immediately and began walking to me. As soon as he was in front of me, he stopped and just kind of stared for a moment.

Blushing, I cleared my throat loudly and held out my hand. "Hey, I'm Hayley," I said lamely, blushing darker at the awkwardness.

He smiled wider, holding out his hand and said in a very deep and _hawt _voice, "Jamie." I smiled back, it seemed impossible not to.

"Well, I'm going to get Hayley's rooming figured out. Jamie, why don't you show her the kitchens? I bet she's hungry," Wanda said lamely and then quickly bailed, leaving just the students and teacher with me and Jamie, who still had not let go of my hand.

"Yeah, let's go," Jamie agreed to thin air, and then tugged me out of the classroom. I waved back to Sharon and the boys as we left, and I could just barely hear Sharon mutter about interruptions while laughing. Again, out came that stupid little blush.

"So, how long have you been here?" Jamie asked as we walked side by side. He had finally let go of my hand, but the feeling of his was still there, burning, imprinted on my skin forever.

"Uhm…" I cleared my throat, rubbing my hands together, and blinked a few times to clear my thoughts. "A few…like, an hour awake. But I was out for a while. I don't really know," he nodded.

"Did you… I mean, were you…" He seemed to be struggling to get out his question, so I answered for him.

"I didn't, you know, have a soul inside me. I never have. I came from the plane crash." Jeb had explained that they had been taking souls that exhibited human characteristics and had taken out the bug and revealed the human. Most of the time it worked, because they were very careful on whom they took. They had already helped seven new humans return to life since Wanda had showed them how, only losing three in the process. I thought it was brilliant.

"Ahhh," Jamie said, "Well, that's good." We were awkwardly silent for a moment, and then we both looked at each other for a split second, our eyes meeting, and I giggled. He chuckled a little, and then I couldn't help it: I laughed. Really fricken hard.

At first he looked at me like I was crazy, and believe me I haven't ruled out that possibility yet, but then he started laughing with me. And soon we had tears in our eyes, we were laughing so hard. And then I had to stop walking, it was impossible, and I grabbed my left side because it was hurting so badly from laughing. Jamie doubled over, still whooping, and as our eyes caught for the second time, I realized that no matter how crazy this life was, you could always find hope and happiness even in the most unexpected of places.

**YAY they met! Whooppp!**

**And now they must bond…and what better way to do that then through working? Little spoiler for you heeheehee. **

**I came so close to putting lol in there. As something Hayley thought. But I stopped myself, thank goodness. That would have been a bit strange, no?**

**Well, there is no way I am updating tomorrow, horribly busy day, but look for an update the day after! I'm going to try to update a lot faster, because summer is finally falling into a pattern and I don't want to leave you guys wanting for long!**

**Love ya, REVIEW!**


	4. Are You Sure?

**I'M BACKKKKK. Sorry it took me so long to update guys, this week has been hectic! I feel bad, but what can you do?**

**Well anywho, work has been awesomeeee and the Fourth of July is coming upp! YAY! fireworks and cookouts and parties...**

**What could be better?**

**So, I'll let you start reading now, love ya! REVIEW**

**P.S-****all of the characters besides Hayley and any random newbies I decide to add in are STEPHENIE MEYERS, not mine. Get it right, get it tight people.**

It had been a week since I had come the caves, not including the time I had spent sleeping. Everything was beginning to fall into place for me, the chores and the back-breaking labor and even the all-consuming darkness, which had scared me to tears my first night here. (I got lost, I'm not a cry baby or anything.)

Anyway, Jamie and I have become really close, and not just in a you-are-the-only-one-my-age-left-on-the-Earth-without-a-bug-in-your-head-let's-be-friends sort of way, but in a…well yeah, kind of in that way.

Since the first day he had led me around though, it almost seems like he is trying to be careful with me. Like, I'm going to break or break down and need to be committed careful. Does he think I'm weird? Am I not pretty enough for him? Not tall enough?

It makes me feel weird to worry about such a shallow thing as looks when my world is on the brink of collapse, but it also makes me feel almost…normal. And normal is good. Right?

I need to stop guessing myself. I've been this way ever since I realized that whether or not Jamie and I liked each other, we'd be stuck-together-more alone than even Lily, who lost Wes, because she has people her own age to be friends with. There is no one else for me or Jamie, just each other. And the weird thing is, I really _want _him to like me. I've never felt that way before.

Well, it is far past time to take matters into my own hands, I decided. Tomorrow we are both working in the cornfields without Mel or Jared or Wanda, so there won't be anyone to stop us if we start to get…but will he want to? What if I am totally wrong and he doesn't like me at all?

Oh, shut up!

XoX

"Hey Hay!" I heard Jamie call for me in his stupid little joke that he had made up the second day I was here. I turned around, hoe in my hand from weeding and smiled at him. He looked fresh, his shirt new and unstained and his hair cutely tossled from bed-head and his eyes sparkling- oh g*d, I'm hopeless!

"Hey, Jamie," I said as he jogged over, bending over in the dirt to help me weed the row of corn I was on. I tried to nonchalantly wipe some dirt off of my face that I had wiped on there while trying to dry my face of sweat, but I felt myself making it worse as my wrist was covered in dirt as well.

"Don't even bother, we are going to be so covered in dirt by the time we are done it won't even matter," Jamie said, smiling at me.

"Yeah, you're right," I agreed. I smiled, trying to be a little flirtatious as I added, "or we could just get really dirty right now!" And I picked up a handful of dirt and threw it at his face.

"You did not!" Jamie fake-shouted, laughter gleaming in his eyes. "You are so dead!" He grabbed a much bigger handful than I did and threw it at me, it hit me square in the neck, flinging up to my face and down my shirt.

"AHHH!" I shrieked, reaching for the bucket of water I had gotten to irrigate with and upending it over Jamie's head. Sopping wet, he shook his hair at me, and then tackled me to the ground, his head jamming into my stomach. We mock-fought until we rolled to a stop against the wall, me laying across his chest, my hands in his hair, pinning him down while his hands were wrapped around my upper arms, trying to get me off.

It wasn't for a few seconds that we both realized our faces were only inches apart, and slowly our smiles faded until we were looking solemnly at each other, our eyes asking silent questions that neither of us had the courage to voice.

I bit my lip nervously, unsure of whether he wanted anything, wanted me to do anything. He looked back and forth from my mouth to my eyes, seeming just as unsure as I felt. Finally, someone else in the room coughed, very dramatically, causing me to remember we weren't alone at all. When I could finally pull my eyes away from his, I looked into ten pairs of curious, mischievous human eyes.

"Erm…" Jamie muttered from under me, and I blushed several shades of dark red before getting up onto my hands and knees and standing, angling my body slightly away from his.

"The corn ain't gonna weed itself," I heard Jeb mutter from the back of the room, and slowly all of the humans around us got back to work, muttering and laughing and throwing quick little glances our way.

"Well…" Jamie said, standing and brushing caved dirt off of his clothes. 'Well' I thought 'that didn't go as planned at all…'

"Better get back to work."

XoX

Three hours later, Jamie and I left the cornfield sweaty, tired and disgusting but thankfully done for the day.

"This almost makes me miss school," Jamie said, looking at his ruined shirt and pants. "But not really."

"Aren't you glad I convinced Wanda and Mel that we were old enough to start working, so we didn't have to go to school?" I teased, looking up at him while angling my head and smiling.

"Definitely. Come on, let's go wash off," I startled for a minute. Yeah, it wasn't odd to bathe with other girls, because none of us could see anyway, and I had even bathed while Ian had washed dishes in the dark pool room with me, but never together with a guy. With _Jamie_!

"Yeah, uhm…sure," I said. We walked in silence to the bathing room, and once we reached it found it completely deserted, no line at all.

"That's odd, usually everyone gets off at this time," Jamie stated. I just shrugged.

"Maybe they are working late." I was still frazzled by the idea of bathing with Jamie, even if it was pitch black. Jamie smiled at me, menacingly, and before I could even react he tackled me again, picking me up this time, ran into the pitch black room and threw me into the cool pool of water.

I didn't even scream. Once I surfaced and managed to choke out all the water I had inhaled, I said in a monotone voice, "I hate you so much, you don't even know."

"No you don't, Hayley-Bailey. You love me," Jamie teased. I could here him pulling off his clothes somewhere to my left.

"I don't think you understand, Jamie. I hate you."

"That isn't very nice," I could hear the fake pout in Jamie's voice as he swam back my way.

"Well then, earn my love," I teased, not really paying attention to what I was saying anymore. I loved the feeling of floating in the lake.

"Maybe I will," Jamie said, and suddenly I felt a pair of strong arms wrap around me from behind. I gasped, a small one, before leaning into the embrace, loving the feeling of his strong, warm arms.

"Is this ok?" Jamie asked in a whisper. "I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable, or like you have to do this because we are the only teenagers left ever or-" I cut him off with a hand over his mouth (though because it is pitch black, I accidentally slapped him on the nose in the process.)

"This is perfect, Jamie. I want this." And I did, so much.

**YAYY! Chapter Four. Ow-oWwwww**

**So, are they together together now? What's going onnnn?**

**Stay tuned to find out ;)**

**REVIEWREVIEWREVIEW!**


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